Reflections on Engaged Scholarship
Andrew Van de Ven
Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota
Summary
This session will discuss any questions and reflections on my book,
Engaged Scholarship (Oxford Univ. Press, 2007), winner of the 2008
George R. Terry Best Book Award from the Academy of Management.
Engaged scholarship is a participative form of research for obtaining the
views of key stakeholders to understand a complex problem. By exploiting
differences between these viewpoints, I argue that engaged scholarship
produces knowledge that is more penetrating and insightful than when
researchers work alone.
A book review by Joseph Mahoney in the current (October 2008) Academy
of Management Review states, “Van de Ven’s book is a landmark
publication that offers the potential for a paradigm shift (Kuhn, 1970),
moving from reductionism (Pfeffer, 1993) toward theoretical and
methodological pluralism. It persuasively offers engaged scholarship as a
better way than the current status quo of creating knowledge for social
science and practice” (p. 1018).
Engaged Scholarship: A Guide for
Organizational and Social Research
by Andrew H. Van de Ven, (Oxford Univ. Press, 2007)
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Book Chapters
E
Engaged
dS
Scholarship
h l hi iin a P
Professional
f
i
l
School*
Philosophy of Science
Problem Formulation
Theory Building
Process and Variance Models
Designing Variance Studies
D i i P
Designing
Process St
Studies
di
Communicating & Using Research
Knowledge
Practicing Engaged Scholarship*
* Examination copy of chapter can be downloaded from
https://umn.edu/~avandeve
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Current State of Social Research
• Gap between Theory & Practice
– A dual challenge
• Academics:
A d i
putt your th
theories
i iinto
t practice!
ti !
• Managers: put your practice into theory!
• Social research not used for practice or science
• Evidence-based practices often not implemented
• Papers in management journals average less than
one (.82) citation per year (Starbuck, 2000).
• Knowledge production problem?
• “Academics appear to have entered a period of non-
engagement, cherishing their autonomy over
engagement and retreating into the ivory tower.”
(Patrick Saveau)
Engaged Scholarship:
A Movement in Higher Education
A Carnegie Foundation sponsored study
defining the work of faculty as the
scholarship of:
•
Discovery
•
Teaching
•
Service
•
Integration
S h l hi off E
Scholarship
Engagementt
Jossey-Bass, 1990
“Abundant evidence shows that the civic
and academic health of any culture is
vitally enriched as scholars and practitioners speak and listen carefully to each other”
(Boyer, 1996: 15).
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Engaged Scholarship
• A form of inquiry where researchers involve others
and leverage their different perspectives to learn
about a problem domain.
• A relationship involving negotiation, mutual respect,
and collaboration to produce a learning community.
• Studying complex problems with and/or for
practitioners and other stakeholders
– Many ways to practice engaged scholarship
• An identity of how scholars view their relationships
with their communities and their subject matter.
– Other academics, practitioners, students
Proposal for Engaged Scholarship
Claim: You can increase the likelihood of advancing
knowledge for
f science and profession
f
by engaging
with practitioners and other stakeholders in four
steps of any study
1. Ground problem/question in reality up close &
from afar.
2. Develop alternative theories to address the
question.
3. Collect evidence to compare models of theories.
4. Communicate & apply findings to address the
problem/question.
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Engaged Scholarship Diamond Model
Study Context: Research problem, purpose, perspective
Research Design
Develop variance or process
model to study theory
Theory Building
Create, elaborate & justify a theory
by abduction, deduction & induction
Model
Engage methods experts & people
providing access & information
Engage knowledge experts in
relevant disciplines & functions
Criterion – Truth (Verisimilitude)
Criterion - Validity
Theory
Solution
Iterate
& Fit
Problem Solving
Communicate, interpret & negotiate
findings with intended audience.
Problem Formulation
Situate, ground, diagnose & infer
the problem up close and from afar
Reality
Engage intended audience
to interpret meanings & uses
Engage those who experience
& know the problem
Criterion - Impact
Criterion - Relevance
Alternative Forms of Engaged Scholarship
Research Question/Purpose
Detached
Outside
Research
Perspective
Attached
Inside
To Describe/Explain
To Design/Intervene
Basic Science
With
Stakeholder Advice
1
Policy/Design Science
Evaluation Research
For
Professional Practice
3
2
4
Co Produce
Co-Produce
Knowledge
With Collaborators
Action/Intervention
Research
For a Client
4
Your Observations Please!
• Questions & comments
about engaged scholarship
–
• Do you practice engaged
scholarship?
–
• What keeps you from
practicing engaged
scholarship?
–
Thank You!
http://umn.edu/~avandeve
Key Questions for Designing a Study
1.
What research problem and question are you studying?
–
2.
What is your proposed answer to the research question?
–
3.
Is your answer any better than the status quo or a competing plausible
alternative answer?
How will you empirically study your proposed answer?
–
4.
Research design for gathering data to examine your proposal.
How will you communicate and use study findings?
–
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5.
Address who? what? where? when? why? & how? the problem exists
up close & from afar
How communicate, interpret & use findings with intended audience?
What/Who’s
What/Who
s perspective will you take?
–
–
–
Who will you engage to answer above questions?
For whom and with whom are you conducting the study?
Who’s point of view will you take?
•
Don’t go it alone!!
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Engaged Scholarship is based on
a Critical Realist Philosophy of Science
• There is a real world out there, but our understanding of it is limited
• All facts,
facts observations & data are theory laden
• Social science has no absolute, universal, error-free truths or laws
• No form of inquiry can be value free & impartial; each is value full
• Knowing a complex reality demands use of multiple perspectives
• Robust knowledge is invariant (in common) across multiple models
• Models that better fit the problems they are intended to solve are
selected producing an evolutionary growth of knowledge
selected,
knowledge.
Summary of Argument
for Engaged Scholarship (ES)
Claim
Reason
Evidence
E.S. promotes
fundamental
advances
to management
science &
profession.
When scholars, who are trained
in basic scientific disciplines
disciplines, interact
and learn with practitioners to
address problems posed outside of
science, they are more likely to
produce significant knowledge
advances than when either basic or
applied research is undertaken
(Simon, 1976).
E.S. process
stimulates dialogue
between scholars &
practitioners in
problem formulation,
theory building,
research design, and
implementation
Qualifiers
Most likely...
Reservations
¾Unless interactions between scholars &
practitioners are one-sided or closed-minded.
¾Unless time or talents prevent implementing
this E.S. proposal.
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A Good Theory has a Strong Argument
Background
– the problem, question, context of the claim
Claim
-Proposition
-Hypothesis
Qualifiers
- when claim holds
- assumptions
- boundary conditions
- contingencies
Reasons
Evidence
- Major premise
- Logic underlying claim
- Grounds
- minor premise
- data backing reason
- warrants
Reservations
Limitations - Grounds for Rebuttal
- Logical refutations: validity
- Empirical refutations: truth
- Cogency of argument: persuasiveness
Stephen Toulmin, The Uses of Argument, Updated Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2003
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